Monday, March 27, 2017

I finally got to the point of sewing on the Bali Wedding Star quilt tonight.

Took me awhile to line up the strips for part A.
I found I had to take it one step at a time, and do exactly what the instructions said to do. Instructions told you which strips to stack first, and whether to stack them right side up or back side up. Also, instead of starting with strip 1, it started with strip 4 which was the center strip. Like I said...I just followed the instructions.

Paper piecing a strip set. There are 8 strips in a set, and you actually piece them before you cut the strip. This was something different that I had done before, but once I got the hang of it, was fun.

You start paper piecing in the center first, which is why you start with strip #4.

I must say, even though there are 21 pages of instructions for this kit, if you just take it a step at a time, the instructions are very good!

One thing I did a little different, was when it came time to trim Unit A on the outside line . Instructions said to use a rotary cutter, but that kind of made me nervous. So I baste stitched on the outside of the cutting line, and then used scissors to trim the piece on the cutting line, which also cut off my basting stitches. Worked really well for me.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

My block #3 - Four X in the Moda Blockhead BOW. One of these days I am going to get one to come out exactly right, until then, I will just keep trying!

I also finished Block 4 of my Sunbonnet Sue quilt for my granddaughter. This one is called Singing in the Rain. Guess I should embroider some raindrops. Just have one more to do and I can get started on putting the quilt together. I found some lovely moda blue print fabric yesterday and am anxious to try the Quilt as you Go method. Just hope I can get it to look right.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone, and a happy birthday to my grandson, Levi. He is turning 14 today, so hard to believe. He was our first grandchild and now we have 10 with another on the way. We are so blessed.

I discovered a site that will print your blog in book form and submitted the first 4 years (2008-2011) to have a book made. I received it yesterday and it has been so great to look through the book, see the projects I was working on (some completed and some still in process or given away) and to see things that were going on in my life.

I am going to submit 2012 - 2016 next and then plan to do each year individually. For awhile I had really stopped blogging regularly, mainly got hooked on facebook. But I really prefer blogging and have returned and plan to do blog often.

If you are interested in doing something like this, the site is www.blog2print.com and right now they are having a 25% off until March 20. I am very happy with my book and do not receive any kind of rebate or benefit from this post. Just thought you would like to know.

Seems like I am always sewing these days, but not finishing much of anything. Here are some updates on projects I have underway.

My quilt club had a workshop on making quilt blocks using hankerchiefs. This is the one I made. I was lucky to find a hankie with a "L" and I will use this to make a pillow for my granddaughter on the way. I hope to make each of my granddaughters a pillow using some hankies that were my mom's and grandmother's.

My most recently completed Star of Bethlehem block. This is block 6 out of 12. I am making progress on this quilt, slowly but consistently. I try to work on this at least once or twice a week.

I have blocks 7 and 8 prepped and ready to start English Paper Piecing.

Work continues on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I make at least one a day and sometimes 2 or three. These are my March blocks so far.

I even pulled a Tom Sawyer on two of my friends, telling them how much fun these are to make, and they each took a block home to work on for me. Thank you Darlene and Brenda :)

Don't know what I was thinking, but I told my daughter she could pick out any quilt she wanted for a wedding quilt. She chose the Bali Wedding Star!!! They have been married three years now, so I finally got started. We bought the fabric in January, and I finally got it all cut out this week. There are 21 pages of instructions to make this quilt (YIKES!) but then, I do love a challenge. It is all machine paper pieced.

I finished Block 3 of Lorelai's quilt. Each one is a joy to work on, and embellish with a little embroidery.

And as if I did not have enough going on, I decided to participated in the Moda Blockhead Block of the Week Challenge. A few of the ladies in my club are doing it also and it is fun to see all the blocks on the facebook page.

These blocks measure 6" and there will be 48 of them. It started March 8.

I am still hand quilting my Dresden plate Irish Chain, just did not work on it this week so have no progress to show.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Moda is sponsoring a Block of the Week, called Blockhead BOW. Since I have nothing to do, haha, I decided to join and here is my first block - the Whirligig.

Have to admit the first on I attempted was a total mess, and ended up in the trash can. Got up this morning and drew it out EQ7 and paper pieced it. Much, much easier. I plan to use the blue in all my blocks to give the scrappiness some unity, and hoping to use other fabrics with that gold metallic sparkle as well in most of the blocks. I have a good bit in my stash, but not sure if I have enough.

Its a snowy day in SC this morning. Nice to see a little snow, but have to look quick, it will probably all be gone this afternoon. Looks like a black and white photo, but is actually in color.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

I have a new granddaughter due to arrive June 30, and she has been named Lorelai. I am making her a quilt with some Sunbonnet Sue type blocks. I finished the first block today, there will be a total of 5 of them. I found the blocks in a Better Homes and Gardens book titled 501 Quilt Blocks. All the blocks are patterned at 4" finished. That was too small, so I scanned the block into my computer, put the image into a WORD document and then enlarged the image to 9" . The block will be a 12" block.

Block 1 - Sunbonnet with Flower

Well what do you know - it loaded right.

The quilt will be made like a large nine patch with 5 SBS blocks and the four plain blocks.

I have some blocks that my mother quilted on various solid pastel fabrics. She did several quilts where she quilted the blocks before she sewed them together and did a beautiful job of that. I think it would be so neat if I could used four of her blocks in this quilt, then Lorelai would have a quilt that both her grandmother and greatgrandmother made. Just not so sure I can do as good a job on the quilt-as-you-go method my momma used, and I would just hate to mess up her beautifully quilted blocks.

I have a few weeks to decide, guess if it looked too bad, I could take them apart. But then my blocks would be quilted and I would have to put them together some way.

My husband and I took a little escape vacation this past weekend. He is recovering from two back surgeries, one in October and one in December of 2016. We have not been able to get away since he first started having major problems in August of last year. We decided to visit Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown in Virginia. It was a get away even if a chilly one. We would leave our hotel around 8:30 each morning and spend the day site seeing until around 3:30 - grab some lupper (lunch/supper) and then head back to the hotel to just relax, and yes, even nap. It was just what we both needed.

So funny, in my last post my pictures were showing up sideways, and now this one is upside down. Once again, I have no idea how to fix this!!!! Come on, blogger, its looks just fine on my computer. Anyway, this is a church in Williamsburg that was attended by George Washington, Jefferson Davis, Benjamin Franklin, and many others in our history. I was excited to see a plaque in the church honoring William Archer Rutherfoord Goodwin, Jr. who was a benefactor in saving the church back in the 1930-40's. He was killed in action of WWII. My maiden name is Rutherford and my husband is a genealogist, so he is going to see if this is one of my ancestors. That is not a typo in the name, it really had two "o's" in the spelling. There was also a pew in the church for Thomas Ballard, a vestryman in 1674-1683. Mr. Ballard is one of my husband's ancestors.

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Well March is here and that means a new color in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had no idea how much I would look forward to a new month in this challenge. Its been fun and I hope to continue throughout the year.

This month, the color is RED. Well I goofed and did red in January, so now I am going to do purple in March which was supposed to be done in January. I got my pieces cut for the nine patches in time to take this project along with us as we head of to Williamsburg for a few days.

My color chart for March:

Oh well...it is sideways an I have no idea how to turn it around. I wish Blogger and Facebook would provide a rotate button!!!!!!! It is right side up on my computer so why do they insist on showing it sideways? Does anyone have a solution for this problem? I have tried googling the problem, but the solutions I find do not work.